Last updated: June 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. Every course below was verified live this month.
Most Microsoft Office courses being recommended around the web teach Office 2013 or 2016 — software more than a decade old, with screenshots that no longer match what’s on your screen. When I re-verified this page in June 2026, thirteen of its fifteen original picks failed exactly that test.
Here’s the current answer: two verified suite courses worth paying for, the truth about the “Learning Office 2024” course people keep searching for, Microsoft’s own free training (genuinely good), and — because one course can’t teach four apps deeply — our dedicated guides for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint when you’re ready to go deeper in one.
QUICK VERDICT
Bottom line: Simon Sez IT’s Ultimate Microsoft Office bundle on Udemy (4.5★, 82,000+ students, 9 courses in one purchase) is the best all-in-one Microsoft Office course online — it’s also the top-placed course in Udemy’s own Office category.
- Best suite bundle: Ultimate Microsoft Office — Simon Sez IT (Udemy)
- Best free option: Microsoft’s own training center — no catch, actually free
- Going deep in one app: use our Word, Excel, and PowerPoint guides
See the Ultimate Office Bundle →
How I picked (and why 13 courses got cut)
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The Office suite changed names (Microsoft 365), changed interfaces, and added a co-pilot since most Office courses were filmed. So this page now applies a hard rule: verified live this month, and either recently updated or important enough that the staleness is disclosed in plain text. The casualties were the Office 2010, 2013, and 2016 bundles — courses that were genuinely good a decade ago and now teach an interface Microsoft no longer ships — plus a shortcuts course untouched since 2017. Two suite courses cleared the bar, and for everything else the honest recommendation is an app-specific course from one of our dedicated guides, where current options are stronger.
The best Microsoft Office courses, compared
| Option | Where | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ultimate Microsoft Office (Simon Sez IT) | Udemy | One-time purchase | Complete suite, one buy |
| MS Office Course Bundle | Udemy | One-time purchase | Current-version refresher (updated 2025) |
| Microsoft’s own training center | microsoft.com | Free | Official, always-current basics |
| App-specific deep dives | Our Word / Excel / PowerPoint guides | Varies | Going deep in one application |
1. Ultimate Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint & Access — Simon Sez IT (Udemy)
Simon Sez IT has taught Office longer than almost anyone on Udemy, and this nine-course bundle (4.5★, 16,800+ ratings, 82,000+ students) is the rare suite package with real depth in each app rather than a survey of all of them: basic-to-advanced tracks for Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Access, covering Office 365 and recent desktop versions. It’s also the course Udemy itself places first in its Office category — a meaningful signal of sustained student satisfaction.
The honest catch: its last content update was January 2024, so the newest Microsoft 365 additions (Copilot features especially) aren’t covered. For core skills that’s immaterial; if you specifically want this year’s interface, pair it with the free Microsoft training below.
2. MS Office Course Bundle: Word, PowerPoint, Excel & Outlook (Udemy)
The most recently maintained suite course on this page (4.6★, updated January 2025). It trades the Simon Sez bundle’s depth for currency and adds Outlook — the app office workers actually live in — which most suite bundles skip entirely.
The honest catch: it’s a much smaller course with a review base in the hundreds, not tens of thousands. Treat it as the current-version refresher; the Simon Sez bundle remains the deeper foundation.
Office 2024 vs Microsoft 365: know which one you’re learning
Before you buy any course, know which product you actually have, because Microsoft now sells two different things under the Office name. Microsoft 365 is the subscription: continuously updated apps, cloud storage, and the AI Copilot features, on every device. Office 2024 is the one-time-purchase desktop version: a frozen snapshot of the apps with no Copilot and no feature updates. Courses age very differently against the two — a 2024-era course stays accurate for Office 2024 owners indefinitely, while Microsoft 365 keeps drifting away from older footage.
The practical guidance: if you’re on Microsoft 365, prefer recently updated courses and lean on Microsoft’s free training to bridge interface drift. If you bought Office 2024 (or 2021) outright, course age matters much less — the Simon Sez bundle’s January 2024 footage matches your apps almost exactly.
Looking for “Learning Office 2024: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook”?
A lot of readers reach this page searching for that exact course title. It’s a LinkedIn Learning course — a solid, professionally produced overview of the Office 2024 desktop apps, available with a LinkedIn Learning subscription (and often free through public-library Lynda/LinkedIn access). We don’t earn anything recommending it, and we can’t link you a discount — but if you already have LinkedIn Learning, it’s a perfectly good starting point. If you don’t, a one-time Udemy purchase like the bundles above costs less than a few months of the subscription and goes deeper per app.
Microsoft’s free training is better than most paid courses
An honest aside that most course listicles omit: Microsoft runs a free training center for every Office app — short video walkthroughs, quick-start guides, and templates, always current with the shipping interface. For learning where a feature went after an update, it beats every paid course on this page. What it doesn’t do is build skills progressively or make you practice — that structure and accountability is what you’re actually buying from a course. Start free; pay when you notice you’ve stopped.
What about Microsoft Office certification (MOS)?
The Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) credentials — per-app exams for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint administered through Certiport — are the only formal Office certifications that mean anything to employers, and they matter most in administrative, clerical, and government hiring where HR screens for them. Neither course above is exam prep; if a job posting names MOS, study that app deeply first (our per-app guides below), then book the specific exam. For most office workers, demonstrated skill matters more than the certificate.
Going deep in one app: our dedicated guides
One suite course can’t take you to power-user level in four applications — the depth lives in app-specific courses. That’s where we route you next:
- Best Microsoft Word Courses — documents, styles, and the MOS Word track
- Best Excel Courses — the highest-value Office skill, by a distance
- Best PowerPoint Courses — presentation design and delivery
- Google Sheets Courses — if your office runs Google instead
What “advanced” actually means in each app
Word: beginners format text; advanced users control documents — styles and themes, section breaks, tracked changes for collaborative review, mail merge, and templates that enforce consistency. If you produce reports, proposals, or anything legal, this is the track with the fastest payoff.
Excel: the longest skill ladder in the suite. The career inflection points are lookup functions (XLOOKUP), PivotTables, conditional logic, and eventually Power Query for data cleanup. Excel fluency is routinely the difference-maker on analyst and operations job descriptions, which is why it has the deepest course ecosystem of any Office app.
PowerPoint: advanced work is design judgment more than features — slide masters for consistency, restraint with animation, and structuring an argument across slides. The best PowerPoint courses teach presentation craft with the software as the vehicle.
Outlook: rarely worth a dedicated paid course, but rules, Quick Steps, and calendar discipline reclaim more hours per week than any other Office skill. Both suite bundles above cover the essentials.
FAQ: Microsoft Office courses
What is the best Microsoft Office course online?
Simon Sez IT’s Ultimate Microsoft Office bundle on Udemy is the best all-in-one option — 4.5★ from 16,800+ ratings, nine courses covering Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Access in one purchase.
Can I learn Microsoft Office for free?
Yes. Microsoft’s own training center offers free, always-current tutorials for every Office app. It’s excellent for basics and finding moved features; paid courses add the progressive structure and practice projects.
Is a Microsoft Office certification worth it?
The MOS (Microsoft Office Specialist) credentials matter in administrative and government hiring where HR screens for them. Elsewhere, demonstrated skill outweighs the certificate — build the skill first, certify only if a job posting asks.
Which Office app should I learn first?
Excel, in almost every case — it carries the most career value of any Office skill. Word matters most for document-heavy roles (legal, admin, publishing); Outlook fluency quietly saves the most daily time.
How long does it take to learn Microsoft Office?
Working basics across the suite take a few weeks of steady practice with a bundle like Simon Sez IT’s. Power-user depth in a single app — Excel especially — is a months-long track, which is why app-specific courses exist.
Start with the free Microsoft training to find your gaps, buy the Simon Sez bundle when you want structure, and go app-deep with our dedicated guides when one tool becomes your tool.